bikelane flamebait and going right

In article ,
Frank Krygowski writes:
On Oct 30, 2:35*am, (Tom Keats) wrote:
In article ,
* * * * Frank Krygowski writes:
[Tom Keats wrote:]
*Sightlines are horrid, and bike lanes
provide a refuge.
I don't understand.

Car drivers here hate to cross painted lines.
But again, cyclists are visible, unless they're foolishly in ninja
mode. If I'm far enough right on a wide-enough road, I'm in as much
of a refuge as a bike lane would be.
The way I usually deal with bad sightlines is to move to the middle of
the lane.

I see you've read a page of Robert Hurst's book(s).
And others. And I've learned a lot by experience, and by taking a
cycling class.

Then our experiences are similar.

*The only way a bike lane would help that move would be if
it were at lane center.

Respectfuly ... says who?
Well, me, for one. Can you explain how a bike lane at the right makes
it easier for a cyclist to move left? I don't see that possibility.

In my local experience, bike lanes don't render such
maneouvers easier, neither to they preclude them.

And if I wanted refuge at the right edge of the road, couldn't I get
that without a paint stripe?

The stripe is reflective paint, easily discerned during a
dark and stormy night. *Car drivers are loathe to drive
across lines on the street.
My taillight and reflectors are easily discerned during a dark and
stormy night, too. Drivers are loathe to run down cyclists from
behind. We know that because of the rarity of that occurrence.

Cyclists being hit by cars from behind is a /relatively/ rare
occurrence, but it does happen. I'd prefer it didn't happen
to anybody at all.

If the road's wide enough for a striped
bike lane, isn't it wide enough without the stripe?

No.
Please explain.
Five foot bike lane plus ten foot (minimum) traffic lane is fifteen
feet of pavement. Take out the stripe and you've got minimum fifteen
feet of lane width. I _easily_ share fifteen foot lanes.

Bike lanes provide a level of comfort for car drivers,
and give urban cycling the public optics of mitigated
perceived dangerousness. (It's the same thing with MHLs.)

So, bike lanes, like MHLs, are for the benefit of car drivers --
not so much to get bikes "out of drivers' ways," but to keep
drivers snug & unspooked in their own comfort zones.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca